DownWithTyranny!

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
-- Sinclair Lewis

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

The Next Generation Of NYPD Looks To Be About As Rotten As The Current One

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Over the past few days we talked about the corrupting nature of the culture of policing-- from the perspective of victims and from the perspective of good apple police officers who were sickened by the entire filthy enterprise. By now, everyone has read about the spoiled brat attitude the police took in turning their backs on Mayor De Blasio last Saturday at the funeral of slain policeman Rafael Ramos. Monday, De Blasio spoke at Madison Square Garden at the graduation ceremonies for 884 new police officers from the city's Police Academy. The assholes booed and heckled him, while he was coddling them and kissing their asses, describing their career choice as "noble calling," and telling them they will "stare down the danger" and "keep the peace." Some jerks stood with their backs turned to the mayor for the entire time he spoke. According to the NYTimes report this all stems from the police unions freaking out about the mayor's support for Eric Gardner protestors after he was murdered by police.

Mr. de Blasio encouraged demonstrators who protested the grand jury decision, saying, “Anyone who believes in the values of this country should feel called to action right now.” And he said that he has often spoken to his biracial son about “dangers he may face” in interactions with the police.In addition to the back-turning incidents, the main police union distributed a flier to officers three weeks ago urging them to disinvite the mayor from their funerals should they die in the line of duty.With Mr. de Blasio at odds with many officers, the police commissioner, William J. Bratton, has been thrust into the role of peacemaker.On Sunday, he stood by Mr. de Blasio’s comments on race relations-- saying it is the “reality” that officers have to deal with. But Mr. Bratton said he understood the officers’ frustrations even if he found it “inappropriate” to express them at the funeral of an officer slain on the job.Mr. Bratton also addressed the graduates. “We are at a very difficult time in this country, in this city, and in this department,” he conceded.But he added, “You have the opportunity with that badge on your chest to do extraordinary things.”Mr. de Blasio is arranging meetings with five unions representing officers of nearly all ranks. He has faced the sharpest criticism from the head of the union for patrol officers, Patrick J. Lynch, who along with other officers turned his back on the mayor on Dec. 20 at Woodhull Hospital after Officer Ramos and his patrol partner, Wenjian Liu, were shot dead in their marked car.That night, Mr. Lynch said that responsibility for the officers’ deaths-- “the blood on the hands”-- started at the office of the mayor.Since then, Mr. de Blasio has mostly avoided engaging directly with the unions. He took questions from reporters last week and spoke at the funeral of Officer Ramos, but in recent days has otherwise not directly addressed the controversy roiling his administration.On Monday, the closest he came was to remind the cadets of the importance of winning the trust of civilians.“We will work every day to deepen your relationship with the communities you serve,” he said, “for the safety of all, for the betterment of all.”

Want to make this evening's New Year's Eve bash a memorable one? Ditch the pedestrian champagne flutes and mix things up with the Mad Men Cocktail Guide. From Gimlets to Greyhounds, Mai Tais to Manhattans, you'll find inspiration, ingredients, and instructions that'll have you ready for a midnight toast to remember all year long. So when it's time to belt out "Auld Lang Syne," raise your Sidecar, your Old Fashioned, your French 75 . . . and welcome 2015 in style.

Meanwhile, AMC continues Sunday-morning Mad Men encores, this weekend finishing up Season 2 and dipping into Season 3, meaning we're introduced to Lane (links onsite).

1. World peace, and decent living conditions for all -- oh yes, and good health to all.
2. Season 5 of Downton Abbey doesn't suck. (I just finished rewatching Season 4, which I hadn't enjoyed all that much, and was delighted to find that it's quite sensational, with almost every character involved in powerful basic-life-needs plots.)
3. Pepperidge Farm makes it possible to buy yummy Lido cookies separately again. (Not those yucky coconutty Tahiti thingies.)
4. I mentioned about world peace and decent living conditions and good health for all, didn't I?
5. I mentioned about the Lido cookies, didn't I?

That's not asking for an awful lot, is it?

Happy New Year, everyone, and thanks for reading. If persistent reports are accurate, once this year is in the can, there's another one ready to be rolled out which is likely to be pretty much the same. Oh well.

Crackpot Utopia:A dream world as envisioned by republicans; a manifestation or expression of the deranged, warped alternate universe inhabited by republicans, at least in their minds. See also: Bachmannism, Boehneresque.

by Noah

1. Pompous Blowhard of the Year Award: Bill O'Reilly

When I thought about who deserved this award, there were more than a few candidates screaming out the windows of the Crackpot Asylum. But one truly bizarre person has built a reputation that is so synonymous with the words "pompous" and "blowhard" that there can really be only one true champeen!

The following pearls from the worm-eaten mind of Bill-O are not just breathtaking in their Outer Limits trans-dimensional scope of irony; they are as breathtaking as what would happen if you were sitting in a spaceship orbiting Pluto and suddenly all the windows blew open and in an instant all the air, the contents of the ship, and you were sucked out into the vast vacuum of ice-cold space.

Heeeerre's Bill-O!

"When you hear something on a partisan-driven program, do not believe it!"

And, mere seconds later:

"Distortions are how some people make a living."

Hmmm, good to know, Bill-O! Good to know!

It's worth noting that O'Reilly actually, reallycut short his August vacation to bless us with these pearls of his unique genius. It seems he got paranoid and felt the need to rush back and defend himself against people he calls "race hustlers" (no, he wasn't looking in the mirror, although it's reasonable of you to assume that he was), by issuing a diatribe about people who dare to criticize republican icon Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot an unarmed suspect Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO.

Bill-O seems to think that having bravely acknowledged that Michael Brown shouldn't be dead offsets the rest of the nonsense he's spewed about Ferguson. But then, he doesn't have to listen to himself.

"My pal Jon Stewart, basically a comedian, but he's taken seriously by some of his fanatical followers. . . . Stewart mocked me for coming back from vacation. . . . Stewart distorts the [Ferguson] issue, and he has been known to do that. [Plays clips including one showing him saying, "What happened to Michael Brown should never happent to any American," and another saying, "If Michael Brown did something wrong, it doesn't mean that you wind up dead in the street."] So here is the Factor Tip of the Day: When you hear something on a partisan-driven program, do not believe it. And that includes the Net! Don't believe this stuff! Distortions are how some people make a living. Stewart is going for the laugh. He doesn't reallycare if it's true or not. And his audience, watching me, they don't know. Yuk-yuk-yuk. Come on!" (Watch the clip here.)

Watching FOX "News" during the last year -- in fact, over the last two years, has been like watching a blinding bright yellow flashing road sign, a sign that screams "Benghazi!," flashing it over and over again. Don't worry, when you pass the first one, there'll be another, even bigger flashing Benghazi! sign every 50 yards. Benghazi. Benghazi. Benghazi! Benghazi! After all, the old sign that said "Birth Certificate!" burned out.

It got so bad that in just a two-week period in June, FOX devoted an insane 225 segments to what will go down in history as "The Great Republican Benghazi Hoax." For the FOX asylum, Benghazi is some sort of manifestation of Tourette's syndrome.

Then, a few weeks ago, the report from the republican-led congressional investigation of the Benghazi tragedy came out. After spending millions and millions of our precious taxpayer dollars that Congress could have been put to so much better use, it turned out that, as all non-crackpots knew, there was no scandal. There was no conspiracy. There was no cover-up.

The reaction from Fox? Silence. It was almost like FOX simply went off the air.

Alas, it was not to be. It took all of about three days, but they got their wind back. The republican committee that issued the report had dumped it out after 5:00 on a Friday afternoon in a classic news dump at the time of week when they thought no one would notice, and much of the media, including the so-called liberal media, only lightly mentioned the findings. But on FOX, nothing at all, not even on their Sunday "news" shows.

Not to worry, FOX has regrouped, and they have hopes for a brand-new republican-crackpot committee that will also spend more of our hard-earned money investigating Benghazi. What's that about the definition of insanity? You know, the one about doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?

FOX is all in. They already pushed all of their chips on Benghazi to the middle of the table a year ago. Now they've taken off all their clothing and added it to the pile. Damn, the idea of seeing a nude Sean Hannity or Neil Cavuto sitting at the poker table is not a pretty sight. ‘Scuse me a minute, I have to go barf.

OK, I'm back. What is it with Benghazi for Republicans? Benghazi might as well be Walter White's blue crystal meth to these wackos. They just can't get enough of it. They constantly need more, more, more! They look under every pillow and rock for what has become the Loch Ness Monster of scandals. Benghazi has become a myth that has fervent bug-eyed believers. The more they chant the word, the more they believe. You could tell these people that the sky is blue and they will scream that it is green.

Recently FOX "News," in their desperation to put literally anybody in front of the camera who will back their nihilistic insanity, called upon Duck Dynasty crackpot Phil Robertson as an expert on foreign policy for their Sean Hannity program. His mission was apparently to convince viewers that "Benghazi is real, my friends." Well, if the Duck Commander says it, it must be so. Hey, that's even better than Krauthammer.

Then there was Hercules, aka Kevin Sorbo, as an expert on Benghazi for FOX's Outnumbered show. (Even the show name reflects the paranoia that is integral to the republican mindset.) In discussing the NFL's very real domestic abuse horrors, Sorbo managed to draw a direct line from Benghazi to the NFL.

And he wasn't the first loon on FOX to do so!Lizzie Hasselbeck had beaten him to it on her miserable little slice of village-idiot theater called FOX and Friends, managing to draw some sort of line between Benghazi and the NFL's domestic-abuse scandal -- as, er, expressed in her Tweet:

It just goes to show that not everyone in Hollywood is a liberal commie pinko. Give it time and crazies like Sorbo will be on FOX connecting Pearl Harbor to Benghazi, complete with tales about Obama using a time machine to lead the Japanese attack. There will be claims of covered-up old black-and-white photos of him shaking hands with Admiral Yamamoto (who also went to Harvard, by the way -- say no more!) and bowing to the emperor.

If FOX keeps going in the direction they've been going, we will see, in time for the 2016 election, a completely made-up scandal based on people and places that don't even exist. Some building that has never been built, in a town that has only existed in republicanland, will be blown up and people that never existed will disappear. Maybe they can call it Roswell, but I think that's already been done. Submit your names for the town of republican myth-mongering now! You might want to get the Web domain name registered. Reaganville, anyone? That's the next step in republican lunacy. Rest assured, though, that it will all be some Democratic front-runner's fault.

The republican masterminds of the crypto-scandal of Benghazi have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams in getting the gullible and the haters to believe. Why did they perpetrate this hoax? My guess is that the real Benghazi cover-up is that the Republicans don't just want to exploit the tragedy in order to politically damage President Obama and Hillary Clinton. They also want to divert attention from the fact that it was they who cut the dollars for the security of our embassies in the first place, and they certainly wouldn't want the media pointing that one out, now would they? If you take away embassy protection, bad things happen.

The way I see it, it's inevitable. FOX already has FOX Business, FOX Sports, and who-knows-what-else, all designed to fatten Rupert Murdoch's wallet so he can invest more money in backing China. So it's only natural that FOX "News" would spin off a FOX "All Benghazi, All The Time" channel: FOX Benghazi™! Your Benghazi Channel! They'll have Lizzie Hasselbeck and Megyn Kelly offering a full line of FOX Benghazi™ merchandise. I can see it now: T-shirts, handbags, socks, AR-15s, all emblazoned with some sort of FOX Benghazi™ logo, even sick little flag-draped FOX Benghazi™ coffins.

3. Crazyspeak of the Year nominee No. 11: DiGiorno Pizza

It's bad enough that DiGiorno makes a virtually inedible product, which even New York City rats ignore when it's tossed out the window and into back alleys, half-finished, by slob citizens. And it's bad enough that said product contributes to the growing obesity problems of those who actually eat it.

Now, in the wake of the sad tale of footballer Ray Rice cold-cocking his then-fiancée-now-wife in an elevator, DiGiorno goes and comments on a twitter account, #WhyIStayed, which someone set up so battered women could explain why they stay with their abusers. Many of the reasons are poignant, even if they aren't quite enough for many of us to fully understand. Reasons offered often deal with things like staying so my unborn child will have a dad or because they believed that every time would be the last time, etc.

In a fine example of typical corporate arrogance, stupidity, and insensitivity, some genius at DiGiorno added what he or she saw as a perfectly reasonable reason to stay with the man who may, some day, kill you:

Is there no depth to which corporate a-holes will not sink in an attempt to separate us from our money and give us diabetes or colon cancer in return? DiGiorno later claimed they didn't know what the Twitter account was about, or even what the phrase "Why I Stayed" means.

I suppose if you live under a rock, it's possible.

DiGiorno's marketing goons may be the Mariana Trench of marketeers, but what should we expect in a world where the likes of Jamie Dimon and Mitt Romney roam free and a whole political party can make light of rape? It seems that it's only a matter of time before some fast food chain uses pictures of the starved prisoners of Auschwitz, saying if only they had our tacos, or pizza, or whatever.

TOMORROW IN PART 10: Beyond Drudgery; and Crazyspeak of the Year nominees Nos. 12 and 13: Michele Bachmann and Kimberly Guilfoyle

NOAH'S 2014 IN REVIEW --
Crackpot Utopia: The Year in Republican Crazy

Part 1: Princess Liz Cheney tries for the Smoothie of the Year Award; "Miss Beck regrets" -- Crazyspeak of the Year nominee No. 1: Glenn Beck; and the Crackpot Party reacts to President Obama’s State of the Union speech [12/19/2014]Part 2: Republicans wonder why normal people call them racists; Sean Hannity wants to self-deport; and the First Annual Mr. Burns Award, to ABC "shark" Kevin O'Leary [12/20/2014]Part 3: Using fear, loathing, and paranoia to sell stuff; Arizona legalizes crack!; and Crazyspeak of the Year nominee No. 3: Bill O’Reilly [12/21/2014]Part 4: A celebration of Michele Bachmann: Pray away the crazy?; What "War on Women"?; and the "Obama angle" on Malaysian Flight 370 [12/22/2014]Part 5: The GOP and the kiss heard 'round the world; Crazyspeak of the Year nominee No. 5: Joe the Plumber [12/23/2014]Part 6: A word about South Carolina; Pat Robertson and his magic asteroid; and I'll have a pack of Twizzlers and an IUD to go, please [12/24/2014]Part 7: And so it begins: The running of the buffoons; Crazyspeak of the Year nominee No. 7, George Will has no idea what rape is; and Crazyspeak of the Year nominee No. 8, Rick Wiles calls for a coup [12/29/2014]Part 8: Things to come: Forward into the past! (11 Presidential Dream Tickets); Crazyspeak of the Year nominee No. 9: Former republican VP nominee Paul "Crazy Eyes" Ryan; Crazyspeak of the Year nominee No. 10: Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association [12/30/2014]Part 9: Pompous Blowhard of the Year Award: Bill O’Reilly; FOX "News" announces new spinoff: the "FOX Benghazi™" Shopping Channel!; Crazyspeak of the Year nominee No. 11: DiGiorno Pizza [12/31/2014]Part 10: Newsmax -- Beyond Drudgery; and Crazyspeak of the Year nominees Nos. 12 and 13: Michele Bachmann, Kimberly Guilfoyle [1/1/2015]Part 11: GOP and FOX whip up the hate over a POW exchange; and Crazyspeak of the Year nominee No. 14: Iowa asylum escapee Rep. Steve King [1/3/2015]Part 12: Arizona Republican protests busload of YMCA campers; Crazyspeak of the Year nominee(s) No. 15: the Impeachment Variations (group nomination); Crazyspeak of the Year nominee No. 16: NM Rep. Steve Pearce [1/4/2015]Part 13 (and last): TV for Dummies: Sarah Palin launches her own channel; Crazyspeak of the Year nominee No. 17: Arizona schools superintendent John Huppenthal (rhymes with Neanderthal); and the final Crazyspeak of the Year nominee -- and also the winner! [1/5/2015]

Standing Up For Ed Snowden?

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Saturday we asked if you would hide Ed Snowden in your home, to protect him from the American National Security State, the way heroes during World War II hid Jews and Resistance fighters from the Nazis at great personal risk.Before Snowden was granted asylum in Russia-- provoking the CIA coup in Ukraine and American sanctions that are destroying Russia's economy-- he addressed a handful of Russian officials, lawyers and human rights advocacy organizations on July 12 at Sheremetyevo Airport. As a follow-up to Saturday's post, I'd like to offer Snowden's verbatim address:

Hello. My name is Ed Snowden. A little over one month ago, I had family, a home in paradise, and I lived in great comfort. I also had the capability without any warrant to search for, seize, and read your communications. Anyone’s communications at any time. That is the power to change people’s fates.It is also a serious violation of the law. The 4th and 5th Amendments to the Constitution of my country, Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and numerous statutes and treaties forbid such systems of massive, pervasive surveillance. While the US Constitution marks these programs as illegal, my government argues that secret court rulings, which the world is not permitted to see, somehow legitimize an illegal affair. These rulings simply corrupt the most basic notion of justice-- that it must be seen to be done. The immoral cannot be made moral through the use of secret law.I believe in the principle declared at Nuremberg in 1945: “Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience. Therefore individual citizens have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring.”Accordingly, I did what I believed right and began a campaign to correct this wrongdoing. I did not seek to enrich myself. I did not seek to sell US secrets. I did not partner with any foreign government to guarantee my safety. Instead, I took what I knew to the public, so what affects all of us can be discussed by all of us in the light of day, and I asked the world for justice.That moral decision to tell the public about spying that affects all of us has been costly, but it was the right thing to do and I have no regrets.Since that time, the government and intelligence services of the United States of America have attempted to make an example of me, a warning to all others who might speak out as I have. I have been made stateless and hounded for my act of political expression. The United States Government has placed me on no-fly lists. It demanded Hong Kong return me outside of the framework of its laws, in direct violation of the principle of non-refoulement-- the Law of Nations. It has threatened with sanctions countries who would stand up for my human rights and the UN asylum system. It has even taken the unprecedented step of ordering military allies to ground a Latin American president’s plane in search for a political refugee. These dangerous escalations represent a threat not just to the dignity of Latin America, but to the basic rights shared by every person, every nation, to live free from persecution, and to seek and enjoy asylum.Yet even in the face of this historically disproportionate aggression, countries around the world have offered support and asylum. These nations, including Russia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Ecuador have my gratitude and respect for being the first to stand against human rights violations carried out by the powerful rather than the powerless. By refusing to compromise their principles in the face of intimidation, they have earned the respect of the world. It is my intention to travel to each of these countries to extend my personal thanks to their people and leaders.I announce today my formal acceptance of all offers of support or asylum I have been extended and all others that may be offered in the future. With, for example, the grant of asylum provided by Venezuela’s President Maduro, my asylee status is now formal, and no state has a basis by which to limit or interfere with my right to enjoy that asylum. As we have seen, however, some governments in Western European and North American states have demonstrated a willingness to act outside the law, and this behavior persists today. This unlawful threat makes it impossible asylum granted there in accordance with our shared rights.This willingness by powerful states to act extra-legally represents a threat to all of us, and must not be allowed to succeed. Accordingly, I ask for your assistance in request- ing guarantees of safe passage from the relevant nations in securing my travel to Latin America, as well as requesting asylum in Russia until such time as these states accede to law and my legal travel is permitted. I will be submitting my request to Russia today, and hope it will be accepted favorably.

So, I ask again... are you the kind of citizen that would take a stand and put yourself in grave jeopardy for this guy? Worth a New Years Resolution?

The media is implying that Boehner pushed Grimm into resigning. It may be true; we'll probably never know for sure since Grimm's resignation from Congress well may have been part of a plea deal with the Feds to keep him from getting a long, long prison term. Forcing elected officials out of office-- even organized crime figures like Grimm-- isn't something that gets talked about publicly in America. "After much thought and prayer, I have made the very difficult decision to step down from Congress effective Jan. 5," Grimm said in a statment Monday evening. "This decision is made with a heavy heart, as I have enjoyed a very special relationship and closeness with my constituents, whom I care about deeply... I do not believe that I can continue to be 100% effective in the next Congress, and therefore, out of respect for the office and the people I so proudly represent, it is time for me to start the next chapter of my life." Despite his criminal activities and 20 indictments, Grimm won reelection last month in an extremely low turn-out election over a typical, hapless and incompetent Steve Israel recruit, Dominic Recchia, 58,886 (53.88%) to 45,244 (40.24%). He'll be sentenced June 8 and will likely get a slap on the wrist... after the resignation. No one expects any of the far more serious charges against him-- charges that would have implicated other FBI officials and foreign leaders-- to be pursued.Michael Grimm, by then already a Republican congressman, first came to the attention of the superficial Beltway media when he threatened to push a reporter off a Capitol balcony and "break him in half like a boy." Very dramatic but a symptom of something that had been festering with the Congressman from the Gambino Crime Family that they willfully ignored. More discerning, first-hand reporters, particularly at the NY Times have been on the Grimm trail for many years-- as has DWT. We first picked up on him as a dapper but violent Mafia thug involved in the transfer of a $400,000 bribe from GOP serial criminal Tom Kontogiannis-- currently serving life in prison-- to George W. Bush via GOP Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham-- currently out of prison and living in a guarded gated community in Arkansas.Blake Zeff, writing for Salon, was one of the few reporters bothering to peek behind the curtain, looking at how Grimm used pathetic Staten Island Republican voters in a final con game as he headed for the exit. He takes his readers inside the shady last ploy and snow job for a look at how his resignation shows he was lying to voters as part of a bargain for a lighter sentence. Grimm knew the Feds had the goods on him and that they could put him away for as much as 20 years. He's 44 now. Unless Paul Ryan wrecks it totally, he'd be ready to start collecting Social Security when he got out.

For all of 2014, he strutted across his district conveying the confidence of an artful blackjack dealer. Sure there were charges against him, he said, but they were trumped up, he was the victim of a liberal witch hunt, his political opponents were after him precisely because he was such an awesome Republican. You get the idea.Of course, we now know all this to be nothing but a crock of bad cologne. Not just because of the details of the case just mentioned-- but because of the guilty plea Grimm copped to in recent days (mere weeks after the campaign ended), and the resignation he just tendered around midnight as Monday bled into Tuesday.The congressman was clearly never going to serve out his term, nor would he take his case to trial, as he had assured voters.But he had a very good reason to convince voters otherwise.If you’re headed to prison but want to cop a deal with the feds, you need a chip you can bargain in exchange for a lighter sentence. And for a politician, there are few chips more valuable than a seat you can resign. If Grimm lost his race last November, he’d have been a disgraced former congressman with no seat to give up and, likely, real prison time. If he won, he’d have the golden House seat to drop in exchange for-- he hoped-- leniency... Grimm ran like the dickens for reelection to get that bargaining chip. No local candidate forum was too small, no ribbon-cutting was too insignificant.And it worked. With the help of a GOP wave, a personal connection to his district and an incompetent Democratic opponent-- whose most memorable debate answer was the inability to name a book he’d read-- Grimm cruised to a double-digit landslide.Which means that, unbeknownst to them, Staten Island voters were legal accomplices in Grimm’s strategy to spend less time in prison. He may have told them he was innocent of the charges (which he now admits is false), that he would take his case to trial (which he did not do), and that he intended to serve his term (which he did not)-- but it all ended up being a lie to help his personal legal situation.It’s a bizarre commentary on our justice system that a felonious politician’s popularity, or ability to win a political race, could actually help shave time off his prison sentence. But this is the gamble Grimm is making, and there’s plenty of precedent suggesting it could work.Still, we won’t know the full outcome until his sentence is handed down, an announcement recently scheduled for June. Grimm’s crime (while he pled to one count, the other 19 will likely be dropped) could fetch up to three years in prison; his team is said to be seeking probation.Meanwhile, though the voters of Staten Island were used by the congressman, they may ultimately end up better off this way. Rather than wind up with the criminal or the Democratic buffoon he defeated, they’ll now have a fresh new slate of candidates from which to choose, as Gov. Andrew Cuomo will call a special election to fill the seat.

Better off? I don't think so. Neither party is likely to run a halfway decent candidate. Both benches are absolutely execrable-- if not excrement. Sunday night John Catsimatidis, the billionaire Republican owner of Manhattan largest grocery chain, Gristedes-- who hosts a talk radio show on WNYM, ran for NYC mayor as a Republican and is a devoted long-time Clinton Machine cog-- was demanding that Grimm resign to make way for former Congressman Vito Fossella, a piece of right-wing garbage who held the seat until he was discovered with two families, one on Staten Island and one in Virginia. [Update: not happening.] Catsimatidis who ran as a strict pro-cop, "law-and-order" candidate, didn't win the GOP primary-- except in one borough: Staten Island, where he was backed by Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis and State Senator Andrew Lanza, each of whom would like to succeed Grimm. But the Beltway GOP Establishment is looking beyond Fossella, Malliotakis and Lanza and trying to anoint the D.A. behind the racial turmoil in New York, Daniel Donovan, the D.A. who failed to secure an indictment in the Eric Garner case-- something that makes him popular with Staten Island white racists (the GOP base in the borough). He is already being touted as the front runner and Republicans aren't waiting for Grimm's formal January 5th resignation to start backing him. Borough President James Oddo, Assemblyman Joseph Borelli and Council members Vincent Ignizio and Steven Matteo have already announced they're on board. Ignazio on Twitter: “Dan Donovan is the most competent & qualified candidate we could ask for, and I am actively encouraging him to run for Congress.”The DCCC's first bad choice was Blue Dog Mike McMahon, who Grimm beat to win the seat in 2010. McMahon claims that Obama is so hated by white voters on Staten Island-- an inordinate number of whom are addicted to Hate Talk Radio-- that no Democrat could win a special election against Donovan. He likes being courted but he's told intimates he's not running. The backup plan is Assemblyman Mike Cusick, who calls himself a "conservative Democrat" but has a decent progressive record except on Choice. He's anti-Choice. It's 2014. He's in the wrong party. But that's what Steve Israel and Chuck Schumer are urging on novice DCCC chair Ben Ray Luján. Aside from the problem with Choice, Cusick has a pretty good record on the solid economic issues that should be what the election is fought over. Cusick doesn't have to give up his Assembly seat-- which he was just reelected to with 60% of the vote (and Oddo's endorsement)-- to run for Congress. But the GOP will be determined to fight the election on De Blasio and Eric Garner and backing the police. Donovan's failure in the Garner case makes him a hero to the same kind of people who defiantly stood with their Mafia congressman last month.

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Before The Selma March Massacre There Was B. Bumble & The Stingers And... Tchaikovosky

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With apologies to Ken-- and in recognition of all the work he's done to make sure everyone at DWT knows everything there is to know about The Nutcracker-- I wanted to mention something not many people do remember about the score to that 1892 ballet. First though, by way of a little refresher, this is a performance by the Cologne New Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Volker Hartung, filmed in Hamburg, February 1, 2009.

Officially Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite op.71a, it is better known in America as the March of the Toy Soldiers. And there was a 1962 version, "Nut Rocker," by Los Angeles-based session musicians calling themselves B. Bumble & The Stingers (which included the great drummer Earl Palmer whose work you might recognize from albums by Neil Young, Frank Sinatra, Bonnie Raitt, Randy Newman, Sam Cooke, the Beach Boys, Bobby Darin, Tim Buckley and dozens of others). The single went to #23 in the U.S. and #1 in the U.K. Emerson, Lake and Palmer recorded a somewhat overblown version a decade later in 1972, although here they are, in all their glory, live in Switzerland in 1970, doing the song after their first album was released:

In between B. Bumble & The Stingers' version and Emerson, Lake and Palmer's cover, a different march was gripping Americans-- 3 marches that attempted to go from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in March 1965. The ferocity of the police brutality against the peaceful, non-violent marchers by the racist and fascist beasts led to a national feeling of disgust towards the vicious thugs still dominating The South and, soon after, to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1965, apparently not something LBJ was eager to get behind. Listen to him and Alabama's sick, racist governor, George Wallace, discussing the march on the phone:

I was a college freshman during this period and the impact on my soul was tremendous and existential. I still can't not cry when I watch depictions of that march. Everyone I know who has seen Selma is raving about it:

By the way, Louisiana's racist Republican congressman, Steve Scalise, Boehner's Majority Whip, is not accused of forgetting whether or not he spoke at a gay rights convention or of wandering into a conclave advocating economic justice for all Americans. David Duke, whose organization Scalise addressed, was a well-known Republican politician who ran for statewide and local office and served as the state Rep for the Metairie area, near where Scalise lived, an area he later served in the state legislature himself. While there, Duke distinguished himself by espousing neo-Nazi ideology on the floor of the legislature and selling copies of Mein Kampf in the state Capitol. There is no one in Louisiana who didn't know this at the time. And no one who didn't know Duke was the Grand Wizard of the KKK or what the KKK was advocating for blacks, Latinos and Jews. It was on TV, radio and on the front pages of the newspapers. Today, the third-ranking Republican in Congress, Scalise doesn't have what it takes to admit he was wrong and promise to mend his racist ways.

Boehner solemnly accepts Scalise's excuse that he thought he was addressing a bedsheet manufacturers' convention

E. J. Dionne Jr. urges that "all sides stop fighting and pool their energies to easing the marriage and family crisis that is engulfing working-class Americans"

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Says E.J.: "Kenworthy’s argument is that we can 'successfully embrace both flexibility and security, both competition and social justice.' His wish list is a straightforward set of progressive initiatives."

"We now seem to be living in the Age of High C, a period when every fight is Armageddon, every foe is a monster, and every issue is either the key to national survival or the doorway to ruin. . . .

"When I look around, I see a lot of liberals who live quite traditional family lives and even go regularly to churches, synagogues and mosques. I see a lot of conservatives who are feminists when it comes to their daughters' opportunities and who oppose bigotry against gays and lesbians."

My only problem with E. J. Dionne Jr.'s eminently sensible column urging a tone-down of the rhetorical decibel level is the notion that there's anything remotely symmetrical in the allotment of blame, when there's no doubt in my mind that it is caused, screeched, and blood-sucked-on something like 99 percent by the Right, which uses culture wars as a substitute for thought and for actually dealing with problems -- not to mention all that toxic grunge stored up inside them. In extreme cases like washingtonpost.com's hired right hand Jennifer Rubin, it appears to be the only reason for the vile creature's continuing to draw breath.

Now, it's certainly hard to quarrel with E.J.'s opening:

Meg Greenfield, the late Post editorial page editor, counseled against writing in “High C” all the time. By this she meant that an editorialist or columnist who expressed equally noisy levels of indignation about everything would lack credibility when something truly outrageous came along that merited a well-crafted high-pitched scream.

We now seem to be living in the Age of High C, a period when every fight is Armageddon, every foe is a monster, and every issue is either the key to national survival or the doorway to ruin.

And it's even harder to quarrel with his proposition that "this habit seems especially pronounced in the way President Obama's adversaries treat him." He goes on: "It's odd that so many continue to see Obama as a radical and a socialist even as the Dow hits record levels and the wealthy continue to do very nicely. If he is a socialist, he is surely the most incompetent practitioner in the history of Marxism." And here I guess I do have a little problem. I get the point that E.J. is making, but the first objection to the proposition that Obama is either a radical or a socialist is that you have to be a total ignoramus or a pathological liar to advance the proposition. That matters, doesn't it?

Certainly E.J. has an interesting point when he argues that in reality we are philosophically less divided than the ideological warriors "pretend."

In all of the well-off democracies, even people who call themselves socialists no longer claim to have an alternative to the market as the primary creator and distributor of goods and services. The boundaries on the left end of what’s permissible in the public debate have been pushed well toward the center. This makes the hysteria and hyperbole all the more incomprehensible.

Now he has a book plug, and coming from E.J. it certainly deserves to be taken seriously.

But let’s dream a little and assume that the American left signed on to the proposals put forward by Lane Kenworthy of the University of California-San Diego in his challenging (and, by the way, very pro-market) book “Social Democratic America,” published this year. Kenworthy’s argument is that we can “successfully embrace both flexibility and security, both competition and social justice.”

His wish list is a straightforward set of progressive initiatives. A few of them: universal health insurance and early education, extensive new help on job searches and training, a year of paid parental leave, an increased minimum wage indexed to prices, expansions of efforts that supplement wages such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the government as an employer of last resort.

His program, he says, would cost around 10 percent of our gross domestic product. Now that’s a lot of money, and the debate about whether we should spend it would be anything but phony. Yet would such a level of expenditure signal the death of our constitutional system? Would it make us like, say, Cuba? No and no. It might make us a little more like Germany, the Netherlands or the Scandinavian countries. We can argue if we want to do this, but these market democracies happen to share with us an affection for freedom and enterprise.

Returning to his "High C" theme, E.J. says

there’s nothing quite like our culture wars, in which disagreements about social issues are seen as battles between libertines and bigots. When I look around, I see a lot of liberals who live quite traditional family lives and even go regularly to churches, synagogues and mosques. I see a lot of conservatives who are feminists when it comes to their daughters’ opportunities and who oppose bigotry against gays and lesbians.

And he makes a pitch for joint action on behalf of the beleaguered family:

The ideological resolution I’d suggest for the new year is that all sides stop fighting and pool their energies to easing the marriage and family crisis that is engulfing working-class Americans.

This would require liberals to acknowledge what the vast majority of them already practice in their own lives: that, all things being equal, kids are better off with two loving and engaged parents. It would require conservatives to acknowledge that many of the pressures on families are economic and that the decline of well-paying blue-collar work is causing huge disruptions in family formation. I’d make a case that Kenworthy’s ideas for a more social democratic America would be good for families, but let’s argue it out in the spirit of a shared quest for remedies.

Maybe it’s asking too much, but might social conservatives also consider my friend Jonathan Rauch’s idea that they abandon their campaign against gay marriage in favor of a new campaign on behalf of the value of committed relationships for all of us?

Disagreement is one of the joys of freedom, so I am all for boisterous debate and tough political and philosophical competition. It’s how I make my living. But our democratic system would be healthier if it followed the Greenfield rule and reserved the harshest invective for things that are genuinely monstrous.

And again, I have nothing to quarrel with except the notion that this is aleft-right divide, when it's the Right that has created the model of the "family" as a cesspool of sociopathology if not outright psychosis whose principal function is as a breeding ground for future sociopaths. And I don't see how the chasm between this and a belief in basic human decency can be bridged.

Crackpot Utopia: The Year in Republican Crazy, Part 8

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• Things to come: Forward into the past! (11 Presidential Dream Tickets)
• Crazyspeak of the Year nominee No. 9: Former republican VP nominee Paul "Crazy Eyes" Ryan
• Crazyspeak of the Year nominee No. 10: Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association

You Can't Make This Stuff Up Dept.:On FOX "News" for March 3, "America's Mayor" makes known his preference for Vladimir Putin over President Obama: "Putin makes a decision, and he executes it, quickly. . . . That's what you call a leader." (See Presidential Dream Ticket #2.)

Crackpot Utopia:A dream world as envisioned by republicans; a manifestation or expression of the deranged, warped alternate universe inhabited by republicans, at least in their minds. See also: Bachmannism, Boehneresque.

by Noah

1. Things To Come: Forward Into The Past!

In the last installment of "Crackpot Utopia," I went on about how the 2016 Republican Primary Freak Show has already begun in 2014 with the absolute nuttery of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a man who is so highly thought of in republican minds that he is considered presidential material and was once even given the honor of presenting the annual on-air rebuttal to President Obama's State of the Union speech.

Did you think that the last presidential election cycle's republican primary season was the biggest freak show you'd ever seen? Well, it seems that this event gets freakier every time, as many of the old faces, and some new ones, start jockeying for position.

Since it's already begun, I've decided to take the leap and take a guess at what the Crackpot Party and their media allies will be touting as their Ideal Republican Presidential Tickets and Slogans!

Are the following really all that far-fetched? Are they ravings of a fantasist, perhaps? Well, to understand crazy, it helps to adopt a bit of crazy and try to put your mind in the crackpot mode, so . . . always remember that to the republican mind, what you are about to read is completely rational and logical. These people are thought quite normal and are perfectly acceptable candidates for Leader of the Free World -- if and when you look through republican eyes. In fact, to republicans these Dream Tickets are the inevitable wonderful result of the entire 6000 years of human history.

Sarah and George -- perhaps America's two biggest attention whores on one ticket! Secession meets "stand your ground." Nice conflict, eh? First campaign stop will be Jefferson Davis State Park in Kentucky. Last campaign stop will be the loony bin, if they don't kill each other first, although once they get an endorsement from O.J. Simpson, their campaign will be toast.

Think about it: Who better represents republican feelings toward gays and poor people? So many repugs, especially those on FOX, adore Putin; Rudy Juliandrews is on record as wishing he was our leader instead of President Obama. Yeah, I know that neither of the fine republican icons on Dream Ticket #2 was born in the U.S.A., but republicans will use their belief that President Obama wasn't either as a twisted precedent. The problem with Vlad the Impaler being dead for centuries? It's the thought that counts.

Jeb and either Marvin or Neil, the brothers behind the scenes. Could Jeb win Florida if all those crackers found out his real name isn't Jeb? More importantly, do countries and empires commit suicide? Yes, they do. Such things have been going on at least since ancient Egypt, the Romans, and a myriad of European monarchies. If America were to elect another son of America's biggest crime family, then history will have repeated itself yet again. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Be forewarned.

Presidential Dream Ticket #5: Santorum-Mr. Rogers
"It's a Good Day in the Neighborhood!"

Rick and… does Mr. Rogers even have a first name? [Yes, it's Fred. -- Ed.] Can you tell them apart? I have to be honest. I can't. The only thing is that I've never heard Mr. Rogers talk about banning contraception. Imagine them in matching sweater vests replete with those nifty Seal of the Office of… badges. Can you say "Good morning Mr. President"?

Why not two of FOX's leading white supremacists, Megyn 'n' Sean? Is that a winning slogan or what? Such a ticket is the dream of the old, white "Get off my lawn" set. Expect former L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling to contribute big racist bucks to this one!

Probably Hannity won't like playing second fiddle to one of them female critters. But Republicans generally will be able to forgive the fact that Megyn Kelly is of the female persuasion and enjoy fantasizing of her baking nice warm cookies in the big white house. The party has proven that they will occasionally accept nonwhite males as long as they are even more out-to-lunch than the usual insane republican. Her "I'm a victim" card-playing is also just the kind of thing that tugs at the strings of their blackened hearts.

This ticket is also the logical end game of years of FOX insanity. For Hannity, with his audience dying off and his ratings spiraling down to earth like an old biplane with a dead engine, there's likely to be a job hunt coming soon. If he doesn't get the VP gig, he'll be left with a choice of cutting ribbons at Chinese auto factories or forming a cruise line called KKK Kruises and burning crosses on the high seas for the rest of his deranged, hate-filled days.

Stephen Colbert sings "The Ballad of Cliven Bundy": "His land belongs to you and me. That's what he told Sean Hannity." (The video segment is below.)

Not to pick on Hannity too much, but actually I don't think that's possible. I have to say I'd rather see large birds picking at him in the hot sun of Death Valley instead of me, but why wait for that?

This already-paired ticket is a natural and may appeal to more Republicans than the team of Sean and Megyn, for many reasons, not the least of which is that Megyn Kelly is a, well, you know, as I said, one o' dem woman critters. Not to worry, in the republican house there are many racists. That Hannity and Bundy share a mutual love for the ages that even surpasses Cranky McCain and Lindsey Graham will help with party fanatics, but, even more than that, pairing a barely closeted white supremacist with the "Let me tell you about the Negro" guy should be downright inspiring to rebubbacans everywhere!

Yeah, Ol' Cranky McCain will be the jealous, fuming odd man out in this triangle as Mitch walks down the aisle with Lindsey, but he'll always have the memories of those wonderful nights of Palin's pillow talk about secession and her bomb-making secessionist buddy Joe Miller.

Presidential Dream Ticket #9: Cruz-Perry
"Texas Squared!"

None other than the brilliant Glenn Beck regards Ted Cruz as the next Ronald Reagan. You can't get a better endorsement than that! Sure, most republicans would rather just dig up the real Reagan and reanimate him. After all, zombies are hot these days. As to putting Perry on the ticket? Well, if you're a repug, why not? Republicans like David Carney, top adviser to then-candidate (now-Texas Gov.-elect Greg Abbott) thought Abbott's opponent, Harvard-educated lawyer Wendy Davis, was "too stupid to be Governor." So they must think Perry is a genius who was elected and reelected to the position.

The only question: Would Duck Dynasty's Phil, who says among other things that AIDS was sent from God as a punishment, and also believes the old republican chestnut about being gay being the slippery slope to bestiality, be the top, or would geezer Reverend Pat be? (Republicans sure seem to spend a lot of time thinking about sex with animals, don't they?)

Does it matter which Robertson tops this ticket? Either way it's "A Dynasty of Robertsons." This ticket is a match made in republican heaven and normal people's hell. Republicans consider both men to be godly and nonjudgmental men. Newtie once said of Phil Robertson:

He talks very specifically about not being judgmental toward anybody. . . . There's sections there [in his sermon] where he sounds like Pope Francis.

Duck Boy is not judgmental? Well, Newtie's cheese fell off the cracker long ago. Seeing certifiables like Rudy Giuliani, Herman Cain, and Rick Santorum get more love from republican primary voters probably pushed him off the final precipice. Not judgmental? Yeah, coulda fooled me. Here's Duck Boy preaching from the pulpit of the dark heart:

Sounds and looks more like bin Laden to me. Maybe I should just do a bait-and-switch on Duck Boy and make him run with Pat from Saturday Night Live instead of Pat Robertson. The confusion and consternation about his new running mate would make him explode.

If this ticket wins, one day President Rand Paul will mysteriously disappear. It could happen in one of two ways. Either the presidential limo will be stolen with him in it, driven to New Jersey and pressed into one of those shiny metal cubes, or the White House will be burned to the ground, under very suspicious circumstances. Ladys and Gents, meet President Issa.

We have got this talespin of culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning the value and the culture of work, and so there is a real culture problem here that has to be dealt with.

Oh yeah, there's a culture problem all right. It's the culture of being a republican and the innate racism that goes with that. Paul "Crazy Eyes" Ryan adheres to that old "lazy, shiftless Negro" meme. They even use it on President Obama whenever he takes a vacation. How many days a year do you and your lazy-ass, do-nothing congressional colleagues work, Paulie? Congress worked a grand total of 135 days in 2014, with no productivity to show for it. Of course, work to people like Ryan consists of badgering people for handouts of free campaign cash. They do panhandling on a galactic scale for "a living." Who the hell are you to talk, a-hole?

3. Crazyspeak of the Year nominee No. 10: Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association

The bottom line is that if Hillary Clinton becomes president in 2016, she will not only be our first female president, she could be our first lesbian president.

Well, yeah, I guess since all the other presidents have been men the chances of any of those particular presidents having been lesbians is way down. So, if a woman does get elected, the chances do increase somewhat.

Sez Glenn: "Hillary Clinton will be having sex with a woman on the desk in the White House if it becomes popular."

Republicans sure get all riled up about this sex stuff. It's some sort of republican OCD thing.

TOMORROW IN PART 9: Pompous Blowhard of the Year Award: Bill O’Reilly; FOX "News" announces new spinoff: The FOX Benghazi Shopping Channel!; Crazyspeak of the Year nominee No. 11: DiGiorno Pizza

NOAH'S 2014 IN REVIEW --
Crackpot Utopia: The Year in Republican Crazy

Part 1: Princess Liz Cheney tries for the Smoothie of the Year Award; "Miss Beck regrets" -- Crazyspeak of the Year nominee No. 1: Glenn Beck; and the Crackpot Party reacts to President Obama’s State of the Union speech [12/19/2014]Part 2: Republicans wonder why normal people call them racists; Sean Hannity wants to self-deport; and the First Annual Mr. Burns Award, to ABC "shark" Kevin O'Leary [12/20/2014]Part 3: Using fear, loathing, and paranoia to sell stuff; Arizona legalizes crack!; and Crazyspeak of the Year nominee No. 3: Bill O’Reilly [12/21/2014]Part 4: A celebration of Michele Bachmann: Pray away the crazy?; What "War on Women"?; and the "Obama angle" on Malaysian Flight 370 [12/22/2014]Part 5: The GOP and the kiss heard 'round the world; Crazyspeak of the Year nominee No. 5: Joe the Plumber [12/23/2014]Part 6: A word about South Carolina; Pat Robertson and his magic asteroid; and I'll have a pack of Twizzlers and an IUD to go, please [12/24/2014]Part 7: And so it begins: The running of the buffoons; Crazyspeak of the Year nominee No. 7, George Will has no idea what rape is; and Crazyspeak of the Year nominee No. 8, Rick Wiles calls for a coup [12/29/2014]Part 8: Things to come: Forward into the past! (11 Presidential Dream Tickets); Crazyspeak of the Year nominee No. 9: Former republican VP nominee Paul "Crazy Eyes" Ryan; Crazyspeak of the Year nominee No. 10: Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association [12/30/2014]Part 9: Pompous Blowhard of the Year Award: Bill O’Reilly; FOX "News" announces new spinoff: the "FOX Benghazi™" Shopping Channel!; Crazyspeak of the Year nominee No. 11: DiGiorno Pizza [12/31/2014]Part 10: Newsmax -- Beyond Drudgery; and Crazyspeak of the Year nominees Nos. 12 and 13: Michele Bachmann, Kimberly Guilfoyle [1/1/2015]Part 11: GOP and FOX whip up the hate over a POW exchange; and Crazyspeak of the Year nominee No. 14: Iowa asylum escapee Rep. Steve King [1/3/2015]Part 12: Arizona Republican protests busload of YMCA campers; Crazyspeak of the Year nominee(s) No. 15: the Impeachment Variations (group nomination); Crazyspeak of the Year nominee No. 16: NM Rep. Steve Pearce [1/4/2015]Part 13 (and last): TV for Dummies: Sarah Palin launches her own channel; Crazyspeak of the Year nominee No. 17: Arizona schools superintendent John Huppenthal (rhymes with Neanderthal); and the final Crazyspeak of the Year nominee -- and also the winner! [1/5/2015]

Schedule note: Crackpot Utopia: The Year in Republican Crazy, Part 8 -- coming up at 6pm ET/3pm PT

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You Can't Make This Stuff Up Dept.:On FOX "News" (March 3), "America's Mayor" rates Vladimir Putin over President Obama: "Putin makes a decision, and he executes it, quickly. . . . That's what you call a leader."

Sorry, minor technical difficulties here, but we'll be back with Part 8 of Noah's "2014 in Review" at 6pm ET/3pm PT. -- Ken

See Through Black Eyes-- Guest Post By Leonce Gaiter

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We know that when Darren Wilson and many of his defenders see a black man, they see someone who “looks like a demon,” and someone who has the extra/sub-human ability to “bulk up to run through” bullets.We know this image of black men from an entire history of racist stereotypes. The image that Darren Wilson successfully invoked before the Missouri grand jury was the same image of monstrous black bucks lusting for white blood that propelled D.W. Griffith’s 1915 racist masterwork, Birth of a Nation.Throughout American history, most images of blacks have been created and presented by whites-- and throughout the overwhelming majority of this nation’s history, the nation and its people have been institutionally racist. Only for the past 50 years have blacks enjoyed laws aimed at granting us equal treatment under the law. For the previous 188, we lived as slaves and a sub-species of citizen.However, throughout that history, blacks have developed our own images of whites, images buttressed not by the toxic stew of fear, hatred, and guilt that boils in white America’s kitchen, but by history and lived experience.Imagine that my southern-born parents taught me that each white man or woman I encountered was a potential enemy, that each should be seen as someone who might deny me a job for which I was qualified, might deny me schooling, housing, freedom-- even deny me my life.Imagine they told me that whites often saw me through the twisted lens of a self-serving lie-- the lie of my otherness, my laziness, my ignorance, of my propensity to violence-- lies they told themselves to justify their vicious brutality, and their tolerance of it. Imagine I was told that to forget that in the face of the evidence would make me the basest kind of fool, deserving of whatever harm befell me at vicious white men’s hands.Imagine that my striving, southern-born parents taught me that seeking equality with whites would be a demotion. A people who tolerated for centuries the enslavement of others, who enshrined chattel butchery in their founding documents, and then, most importantly, denied the existence of blood when their hands dripped with the stuff-- these were not people with whom you sought parity. These were negative object lessons to whose depths you swore never to fall.Imagine that my righteously angry southern-born parents taught me that the American Dream was for whites, that American justice was for white people, that Disney-esque happy endings were for white people.Now, imagine that we’re not imagining. This is what my parents taught me-- that every white man or woman was a creature that I should approach as I would a strange, stray dog, just as likely to bite your hand off as wag its tail. They taught me and my siblings to be wary at every encounter, and constantly steel ourselves against what ill will might erupt from white skin.It worked. Like any good parents, ours prepared us for the world as it is, and by any standards, we are a highly accomplished set of children. I credit much of that to the hard lessons our parents taught us.Now, imagine once more-- this time that I, and those like me represent the majority, the state and its power, and that we have guns on our hips, badges on our chests, and the power to shoot you without consequence.Leonce Gaiter is a prolific African American writer and proud Harvard Alum. His writing has appeared in the NYTimes, NYT Magazine, LA Times, Washington Times, and Washington Post, and he has written two novels. His newly released novel, In the Company of Educated Men, is a literary thriller with socio-economic, class, and racial themes.

Beware: Republicans Reprise That Old Black Magic To Deal With The Budget

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The wealthy have never allowed the idea of democracy-- stuff like majority rule-- stand in the way of their greed and power. There were times when politicians have been brave enough to stand up to them-- but not since FDR, at least not on a presidential level. It's part of what Elizabeth Warren means when she says the system is rigged against us. And it's what Bernie Sanders' campaign for president is all about. And it's what a true true believers in Congress-- like Alan Grayson, Mark Pocan, Donna Edwards, Barabara Lee, Raul Grijalva-- are always talking about. But one of the problems with the wealthy is that their power allows them to change the rules when the rules threaten them, even a tiny bit. Gerrymandering is part of that. Michigan Republicans' plans to count their electoral votes in such a way to help GOP presidential candidates is another. Sunday, Robert Reich wrote about another one, the 1% has their political party doing for them-- firing Doug Elmendorf.You may not have ever heard of Elmendorf. His the director of the strictly non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the CBO. Elmendorf is an economist who worked closely with Reagan's director of the Council of Economic Advisers, Martin Feldstein, at Harvard. He first went to work at the CBO is 1993 and his economic analysis of Clinton's health reform bill is what killed it. He left soon after that it work for Alan Greenspan at the Fed and then for Larry Summers at Treasury. He became the director of the CBO in 2009 soon after Peter Orszag left. He was appointed by John Boehner and Daniel Inouye, then president pro tempore of the Senate, on the recommendation of the two Budget Committees.In his column, Reich explains the issue as GOP demands to further rig the system for the 1% by the use of trickle down theory-- "dynamic scoring"-- in economic projections.

It’s based on the belief that cutting taxes unleashes economic growth and thereby produces additional government revenue. Supposedly the added revenue more than makes up for what’s lost when Congress hands out the tax cuts.Dynamic scoring would make it easier to enact tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, because the tax cuts wouldn’t look as if they increased the budget deficit.Incoming House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) calls it “reality-based scoring,” but it’s actually fantasy-based scoring-- which is why Elmendorf, as well as all previous CBO directors have rejected it.Few economic theories have been as thoroughly tested in the real world as the asserted revenue effects of supply-side economics, and so notoriously failed.Ronald Reagan cut the top income tax rate from 70 percent to 28 percent and ended up nearly doubling the national debt. His first budget director, David Stockman, later confessed he dealt with embarrassing questions about future deficits with “magic asterisks” in the budgets submitted to Congress. The Congressional Budget Office didn’t buy them.George W. Bush inherited a budget surplus from Bill Clinton but then slashed taxes, mostly on the rich. The CBO found that the Bush tax cuts reduced revenues by $3 trillion.Yet Republicans don’t want to admit supply-side economics is hokum. As a result, they’ve never had much love for the truth-tellers at the Congressional Budget Office....The budget plan Paul Ryan came up with in 2012-- likely to be a harbinger of what’s to come from the Republican congress-- slashed Medicaid, cut taxes on the rich and on corporations, and replaced Medicare with a less well-funded voucher plan.Ryan claimed these measures would reduce the deficit. The Congressional Budget Office disagreed.Ryan persevered. His 2013 and 2014 budget proposals were similarly filled with magic asterisks. The CBO still wasn’t impressed.It’s one thing to cling to magical thinking when you have only one house of Congress. It’s another when you’re running the whole shebang.Now that Elmendorf is on the way out, presumably to be replaced by someone willing to tell Ryan and other Republicans what they’d like to hear, the way has been cleared for all the magic they can muster.

In this as in other domains of public policy, Republicans have not shown a particular affinity for facts.Climate change? It’s not happening, they say. Even if it’s happening, humans aren’t responsible. Even though almost all scientists studying the issue find that humans are the major cause, such findings are “controversial,” says the GOP, and should be given no greater weight than findings on the other side.Widening inequality? Not occurring, they say. Even though the data show otherwise, they claim the measurements are wrong.Voting fraud? Happening all over the country, they say, which is why voter IDs and other checks are necessary. Even though there’s no evidence to back up their claim (the best evidence shows no more than 31 credible incidents of fraud out of a billion ballots cast), they continue to assert it.Evolution? Just a theory, they say. Even though all reputable scientists support it, many Republicans at the state level say it shouldn’t be taught without also presenting the view found in the Bible.Weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? America’s use of torture? The George W. Bush administration wasn’t overly interested in the facts.The pattern seems to be if you don’t like the facts, make them up.Or have your benefactors finance “think tanks” filled with hired guns who will tell the public what you and your patrons want them to say.If all else fails, fire your own experts who tell the truth, and replace them with people who will tell falsehoods.There’s one big problem with this strategy, though. Legislation based on lies often causes the public to be harmed.

Mark Pocan (D-WI) and Barbara Lee (D-CA) are the most progressive members of the House Budget Committee. Neither is happy seeing the Republicans making this move. Yesterday, Pocan told us that "Dr. Elmendorf was a perfect choice for a non-partisan agency; fair, unbiased and trusted by all. As the Republicans realize the facts aren't on their side when it comes to budgeting, their solution seems to be to get rid of the facts and try to replace them with distorted ones from a shill they select to spin their view of the world. That's a completely wrong way to start out the 114th Congress." Congressman Lee had a similar perspective she shared with us: "As a member of the Budget Committee, it is imperative that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) remains independent and objective. The CBO’s objectivity provides needed assurances to Congress and the American people about the impacts of legislation. Conservative attempts to influence CBO and undermine its independence, especially by forcing the CBO to fudge the numbers by using 'dynamic scoring,' is outrageous."And because the conservatives now control both houses of Congress, they can do just that.